


Takezo Kaidan (The Ghost Story of Takezo)

by Ryuutchi



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Chromatic Character, Gen, Ghosts, Horror, Japanese Folklore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-11
Updated: 2010-10-11
Packaged: 2017-10-12 14:50:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/125999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryuutchi/pseuds/Ryuutchi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>300 years ago, in a province just outside of Edo, two travelers wander lost in the fog...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Takezo Kaidan (The Ghost Story of Takezo)

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies to Lafcadio Hearn for stealing your old-time style. Please don't rise out of your grave and murder me. Thank you to skripka, jhyanmar, , and comixologist for bearing with me while I worked on this. Especially comixologist.

300 years ago, in a province just outside Edo, in a village called Ryuu-no-kuni-zaka-- which means the Slope of the Country of the Dragon, for the villagers of the surrounding area are renowned for their fearlessness and zeal-- two itinerant wanderers of strange ken journeyed together. They had journeyed together for many months, challenging the corruption of the ninety angry ronin, who were said to be the hungry ghosts of the Heike warriors that refused to accept their defeat and the death of their clan, and meeting the rokuro-kubi, strange creatures who appeared to be normal women by day but by night stretched their necks to impossible lengths in order to frighten humans.

This night fog clouded the roadside, and they had lost their way. These two travelers, one had taken the name Takezo Kensei, and the other answered to Carp, wandered lost for hours until Carp spied the tell-tale yellow lamplight of a homestead glowing through the fog. It was a small home, but appeared well-taken care of; the travelers hastened to it without speaking to each other, for it felt as though the fog deadened speech, and found it occupied by a beautiful woman. Takezo begged the woman's pardon for their intrusion; but she smiled a coquettish smile and respectfully invited them to approach the fire, where she had already begun to warm some sake. She ventured questions about their travels, which Carp answered politely, detailing the many adventures and trials Takezo had forged through. Meanwhile the warrior, Takezo, had observed, with astonishment, that the woman was very beautiful, and wondered aloud that such a lovely girl should be living by herself in such a lonesome place.

The young woman said to him: --   
"Honored warrior, my name is Usotsuko. I lived here and took care of my mother and father in their elder years. They had no other children, so I never married. And now, I am used to living alone. And you are here, so why should I fear the cold and fog? Spend the night, and I will take good care of you. And your companion."

Takezo accepted this offer, glad for the chance to spend more time with the girl, for he was already smitten by her beauty and grace; as she bent forward to refill his cup, Takezo was astonished to see she was incomparably more beautiful than any other woman he had seen before. But she soon pulled away from his flatteries, promising to return after she had made up their bedchambers, and disappeared behind a screen. But Carp protested quietly, so as to keep the girl from hearing, saying: "This woman is uncanny. I don't think you should trust her. Keep your sword to hand." So saying, he reached out, being closely acquainted with Kensei's equipment, and carefully tightened the ashi, or leather scabbard hoops, around the warrior's sword belt, so it wouldn't easily slip off. He withdrew his hands and picked his cup back up as the woman returned and knelt beside them once more.

After only two cups of wine, and innumerable looks of dismay, Carp bade their hostess a good-night; and Usotsuko showed him to a small side-room where a mat had been laid out for him. When she returned, she and Takezo spoke together until late in the night, and he soon felt bewitched by this strange, lonely girl; the more he looked at her, the handsomer she appeared to be. Deep into the night, she looked up from her cup, and said: --   
"Warrior, your little friend is jealous of what we have. He wants to keep us apart; he wants you to turn your eye away so that he can have me for himself. He is a viper who will bite at your heels and take me for his own. I would not have you harbor such a creature at your bosom."

Then Takezo frowned, for what she said made sense, and all remembrances of Carp's tenderness and love for him had slipped away like mist in the early morning. He touched the tsuka, or hilt, of his sword, which Carp had only a short time ago refastened to his belt and shook his head sadly. He did not wish to think that his companion could harbor such ill-will, but her words were clear, and his mind cloudy with drink. Usotsuko took him by the elbow and steered him to the room she had made up for him; it was small, but the bed was clean, and there was a little lamp that she doused as he made himself ready, removing his sword belt, and laying it beside his head. As he lay his head down, he thought for a moment he perceived, as she slid the door shut, her hair wreathing about her head in a wild mess, although before the light went out it had been loose, but well-combed and neat.

Ere morning arrived, Takezo found himself woke by the immediate press of his bladder; and he moved to stand, stumbling over his swordbelt; -- for Carp had tied the scabbard too tight to the belt and he had been unable to set the length of leather aside, and he thought to curse his friend for his diligence. Although it was yet night, the last of the moonlight shone through the paper screens and Takezo could easily find his way. His travels brought him past the room in which his companion slept and, mindful of Usotsuko's words, Takezo paused in the doorway to look in Carp; and, by the moonlight, he saw his companion sitting up, staring at him with the deepest hatred. He stood from his bedroll and took a step towards the door; -- and his movements were sharp and jerky, like each limb moved independently of the others. Takezo's hand clasped upon the swordhilt once more, but although he moved to pull his sword from its scabbard, he found he could not bring himself to draw. For a little time Carp looked at him with that venomous expression; and then he said in a voice that might have sounded ordinary but for the hate-filled words: "Takezo, when you are dead and gone; your glory, your life, and your love will be mine. If you do not kill me, I will kill you!"

At that moment, Takezo found his sword springing from its scabbard and he laid it on Carp's neck, hard enough to break the skin, but biting only a shallow wound. For looking into his companion's eyes, he could see the echo of fear beneath the anger; and from the corner of his eye he saw the winding, sinuous shadows playing Carp like a strange sort of puppet. In that moment, Takezo remembered the many months spent with Carp for company,-- and the warriors they had faced together, fighting to save villages in need, -- and the strange creatures they had discovered or fought together. Never once in all those days had his companion ever faltered in his affections. Takezo's sword slid from his friend's neck, and whirled down, severing the ink black threads he'd mistaken for shadows; and Carp immediately crumpled to the floor.

From the shadows, Usotsuko stepped into the wan light, smiling her fetching smile. She said:  
"Kind warrior, there was a great commotion. I hope there is nothing amiss that would trouble you. Perhaps you would like some more wine to take away your cares? Or is your bed lonely?"

Takezo found himself smiling at her, sword lowered; and he might have allowed himself to become bewitched once more, had Carp not stirred at his feet. From the sharp blackness, new threads emerged, twining about one another in their eagerness; and, now that he was looking for them, he could follow the mass of them out of the darkness to their termination-- a shifting and spiraling parody of hair around her head. For one instant he stood, startled and paralyzed, but in another moment he had perceived the danger her hair posed to himself, and to his companion; and the warrior raised his sword once more. Her beauteous face and body warped in anger, and she flung herself at him, and shrieked in his face:  
"You—you—you--! If you had but stayed asleep as you should! You and he would have died peaceably in your drunken sleep, but now I shall tear you to pieces and ravage the bones!"

Had he been a man of less mettle he would have been frozen to the spot and died as she said, but instead, with a clean stroke, he smote her hand from her wrist, terrible claws clacking lax against the floor in place of once neatly lacquered nails. His second stroke severed a great mass of hair that had gathered about her; and his third struck her head from her neck. The moment it fell to the ground and lay still, knelt beside his felled companion. "Carp, my dearest companion, I should have listened to you," said Takezo;-- "If my failure has harmed you..."

As Takezo spoke, Carp coughed and sat up, and passed a hand over his face; and he stared up at the warrior with a queer expression. He said:-- "I had the strangest dream. I-- oh, but why are you here instead of asleep in your bed? Are you ill?" He smiled laughingly, and then made as if to return to bed. But Takezo reached for him and pulled him to his feet instead, suggesting they would perhaps find better company elsewhere. Although he was surprised, the house no less discomfited Carp now than before and, although he did not think it polite to leave in the middle of the night like thieves, he readily agreed.

When they gathered their belongings and stepped back out on the road, Carp turned and sought to make sure the storm doors were securely closed, for he was a good man. But when he turned to look at the lonely home, he found that the dwelling at vanished into the dissipating wisps of fog.

Soon enough, the pair perceived the thatched roof and pale lantern light of a larger dwelling and, upon approach, it appeared to be a true inn. There were horses stabled in the courtyard, and when Takezo's companion knocked on the door, the innkeeper bustled out; and stood aghast that any travelers would be out on the road at night and cried out, compassionately: -- " Ah, how pitiful! Deign, masters, to enter."

He called out for his servant to care for Takezo's horse, and entered the cottage, where a fire burned merrily. The inn-keeper's wife, an old woman, prepared for them some food and asked how they came to be traveling on this way at such an hour at night. Carp perceived her hands were shakng when she asked and inquired thus: "Grandmother, are you scared of travelers here?" But she shook her head, and told them she was frightened for them. For, she told them, there was a great monster that lived in the copse a ri down the road, who gobbled up anyone who dared travel after nightfall. Carp just laughed brightly; and told the inn-keeper that the great Takezo Kensei had saved them, for he was afraid of no monster or villain.


End file.
